Support for Offshore Drilling Plunges Across the Board

So this is why so many politicians have responded to the crisis caused by offshore drilling in the gulf by paradoxically rushing to the bullhorn to call for, yes, more offshore drilling -- they hoped to blast their message as early and as loudly as possible, before the public lost confidence in the practice in general. Well, too late. A recent Rasmussen poll shows that support for drilling is tanking (pun, ahoy!) among Democrats, Republicans, and in fact, all likely voters. This chart from EnviroKnow breaks it down:

As you can see, the spill has -- surprise, surprise -- caused just about everyone to rethink their support for offshore drilling. And remember, this poll is from Rasmussen, a traditionally conservative-skewed polling outfit, so it might be reasonable to assume that in reality, the drop off is even steeper.

Of course, such a plunge in popular opinion is to be expected -- how many people had a high opinion of the financial sector when Goldman Sachs was indicted for fraud? But the fact remains that this is indeed a significant decline. Enviroknow points out that "Support is currently at its lowest levels since Rasmussen began polling on the issue in 2008."

And as the underground volcano of oil continues to spew upwards of 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day, and as some of the more dire effects of the spill become readily apparent, it's my feeling that the trend in opinion of offshore drilling will only continue to plummet. Which again, is to be expected. The real news would be our politicians taking the opportunity to rally for cleaner, safer forms of energy, say, the kind that comprehensive clean energy legislation would serve to produce.